Port Louis, Mauritius

Mauritius… what can I say? It is magnificently beautiful all over the island. If you think that Hawaii is paradise, you have another think coming. According to a Mark Twain quote, “God made Mauritius, and then based Heaven off of it.” Aside from the fact that Semester at Sea students are known to wreak havoc whenever we have been to the island, people were extremely nice to us (aside from some people trying to get houses and hotel rooms for the night) and it was such an interesting place. If you don’t know, as I didn’t before the trip, Mauritius is an island off of Africa, to the east of Madagascar (we passed it yesterday and could see it out our windows). It is a MAJOR tourist spot of Europeans, Indians and some Africans. There are a large amount of Indian and French locals on the island, and the majority of people that I interacted with spoke French, Creole, and English. Similarly to the majority of Caribbean Islands, people in Mauritius are definitely on island time. Some people had some crazy stories about how relaxed on time their cab or catamaran drivers were when they were on such a tight schedule due to being here only two days.

When we docked in the morning, I went out with one of my friends to find somewhere to use the internet. We had been told that there was coast-to-coast wifi throughout the island (the only country in the world with it) but we had no such luck. We were docked pretty far from the main part of the city, and since no one knew exactly where to go it took us a little while to get there. (The only piece of advice we received was from the diplomat who gave the diplomatic briefing who told us to go towards the tall buildings… You can’t see the tall buildings until you are really close.) When we finally found where to go, we stopped in a shopping complex to eat something and use the computer. I needed to job search badly. Unfortunately, we had to eventually succumb to paying for internet for an hour. After that, we met up with two other friends that we were traveling with for the afternoon to go to an adventure park. The drive out to the park, which was about an hour away and far into the countryside, was incredible. The views were just unbelievable and breathtaking. I have never seen a bluer sky and water, greener plants, etc. We drove to a town called Chamarel, which was out in the mountains and went deep into the forest to find the park. We got set up with our gear, deeted up (bug spray) since the bugs were supposed to be crazy as it was a fairly rainy day and incredibly muddy, and set off to complete the ropes course. It started off with just a series of these foot bridges that were right in the heart of the forest and everything around you was botanically fantastic. Since it was so muddy and our shoes were completely caked with layers of mud, people kept slipping and sliding all over them- we were hooked up to a rope so it was ok. When we finished that section, we hiked up to the ropes course. We then spent the next hour or so going through a bunch of obstacles that were different than most ropes courses I have experienced. It REALLY didn’t help that our feet were muddy either, it required much more arm work so that we didn’t fall. After we finished, we were covered in mud, disgustingly sweaty and unbelievably thirsty… but it was worth it, we had a lot of fun.

On our drive back to the ship, we stopped at a grocery store since we hadn’t really eaten yet that day and it was getting really late. I had already noticed it in Port Louis and definitely felt the culture shock, but there were so many white people all over the place, especially in the grocery store. It was so different than what we have been used to the past two months, where if you see a white person in port, especially a young one, odds are it’s a SAS person. Whats amazing and definitely going to be weird when we return to the states, is that the amount of white people aren’t even nearly as great as it will be back at home. Anyway, the grocery store was amazing. I forgot how much I miss grocery shopping when I know what all the foods are and plan on spending hours in the A & P when I get back home. They had Laughing Cow cheese, which was my favorite find to the point where I didn’t stop talking about it the rest of the day because I was so excited. They had a ton of other brands that we find at home too. We were in a rush though so we couldn’t spend too much time there and went back to the ship to quickly shower and get ready to go out.

We ended up staying in Port Louis for the night because the cabs to the big bar areas in Mauritius are incredibly expensive and some of my friends didn’t want to pay it. We ended up having a really fun night, went out for a nice dinner, and then ended up at a bar with probably the rest of the SASers that didn’t leave the city as well as some of the crew which was fun. We also went to a casino and it was exciting to be legal and able to gamble in one. Eventually we called it a night and took a water taxi back to the ship.

The next morning we had to leave the ship by 8 so that we could meet the rest of our group and the catamaran that we were taking out for the day in Grand Bay, about 45 minutes north of us. Speaking of direction, one of the funniest things about signs on the island is that because it is so small a lot of signs just say The North or The South and that is all that some people know about where they were. The catamaran was awesome. It was a beautiful day out, we got to swim and snorkel and there is no greater excitement about swimming in the ocean greater than a bunch of people that have spent an entire semester so far staring at it wanting nothing more than to jump in it. We spent some time on a beach that was about an hour boat ride away from the island and the water and surroundings were just beautiful. It was an excellent day.

When we got back on the ship, I had a phone interview and then we watched the ship leave Mauritius… for SOUTH AFRICA!!!! SO EXCITING!!